Darkness Returns 3
by MimiYamatoForever
Summary: A long and hard battle has everyone in Sanctuary worrying about the future of the Andromeda Saint who gave his soul to save the Earth. PLEASE READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE. EXPLAINS THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE READING THIS STORY.
1. MUST READ FIRST TO UNDERSTAND STORY

Hello everyone

I am very sorry to announced that the first and second part of my Darkness Returns series have been lost forever. There was a french translation of the stories but the person that I gave permission to translate them changed the stories and ruined the original plots. I will do what I can to re-write the first and second parts but it may take a while.

In the meantime I hope that you still find part three entertaining.

In case you were not able to read the first and second part of Darkness Returns, here's a quick summary.

Part 1:

_Shun find out that he still has a deep connection to Hades and is kidnapped by the three judges and Pandora in an attempt to reconnect the two to bring Hades back. The plan is foiled by the saints and Athena._

Part 2:

_Hades is able to make a reconnection to Shun and takes over his body once again and has announced that at the next eclipse he will release all of the titans from the underworld so they can cause destruction on earth unless Athena surrenders the title of Earth's guardian to him. _

_During the final battle inside Sanctuary, Shun is able to take control of his body and demands his soul to be sealed away knowing that if his were to be sealed away the same would happen to Hades because they are connected._

_Against the idea, Athena eventually orders Camus and Hyoga to seal Shun's body inside and Ice Coffin until another way can be found for the Andromeda saint to return without the dark god inside him._

_The story ends with the saints hidding the Ice Coffin in Sanctuary where only few know where it is._

Again, I will try to re-write the stories but it may take a while. Thanks for reading my other stories and I hope you like this one.


	2. Chapter 1

Darkness Returns 3

By: MimiYamatoForever

The sun was shining brilliantly down onto Sanctuary and there didn't seem to be a cloud in the sky. Solders and recruits were busy finishing repairs from the damages that had been done to Sanctuary during the previous battle. The ruble and debris were being cleared as quickly as possible and new things were being made in order to please Athena.

The twelve Gold Saints were busy fixing their temples or adding new rooms and other things to them as it was ordered by Athena that they were to start training successors for the Gold cloths.

Aiolos, Camus and Dohko already had Seiya, Hyoga and Shiryu training every day and the three youths were staying in the temples with their mentors.

The rest of the Gold Saints however had problems of their own. Besides Aiolos, Camus and Dohko, Mu was the only other Gold Saint who was already training someone to one day be the next Aries saint.

The remaining eight Gold saints now had to figure out just who exactly they had to train and because of that Athena was giving them special permission to leave Sanctuary if they needed to.

Shaka, though he didn't want to admit it openly, was disappointed that he wouldn't be able to train Shun to be the next Virgo saint. After going through so many battles, Shaka had seen the power Shun held inside as a saint and he wanted more than anything to train Shun to be even stronger. But now that wasn't possible and the Virgo saint now had to decide which of his two strongest pupils would take his place.

Not only that, but Phoenix Ikki was still missing and that was posing a problem to Leo Aioria as Ikki was suppose to be the next Leo Gold Saint.

A search was still taking place to find Ikki wherever he may be and Aioria was out helping them. Nearly a month has gone by since the battle between Hades ended and there was still no sign of the phoenix saint to be found despite how many people were searching for him. The search parties had checked all over Greece, Japan and what was left of Death Queen Island but Ikki wasn't in any of those locations.

Searches were still taking place to find him but the problem was that no one had any idea where Ikki had gone after the fight on Mount Olympus. The minute he had turned mortal again he was sent to Earth by Hades but the location was unknown to any of them so finding him was taking a very long time. Ikki needed to be found quickly so he could be informed on what happened to his little brother.

They all knew that Ikki wasn't going to take the news about Shun well. The saints and Athena were still having a hard time dealing with the end result of the battle with Hades.

At the last moment before Hades had stabbed Athena with his sword, Shun had managed to take control of his body and powers. He had summoned the gold nebula chains to hold his body and cosmo to allow Athena to remove his and Hade's soul from his body.

Athena had then sealed both of their souls inside the star pentagram around Shun's neck and placed the seal of Athena on it to keep them from escaping. But before his soul had been removed from his body, Shun had demanded that his body be contained so that if Hades soul somehow did manage to escape he wouldn't be able to be possessed again.

Athena and the other saints gave their word to fulfill Shun's last request.

After combing their cosmo, Camus and Hyoga had sealed Shun's lifeless body inside an ice coffin that was later placed in a secluded area inside the palace and only Athena and the Gold and Bronze saints were permitted to enter that area.

Shun's sacrifice and bravery was known through the entire Sanctuary. Everyone honored his actions and memory. For even though he was the darkest of the Greek gods reborn on earth as a human, his loyalties as a saint to Athena were still true and strong.

And he would never be forgotten for what he had done.

[_**Sagittarius temple**_]

It was his day off from training and for that Seiya was somewhat glad. The training Aiolos had him doing every day kept his mind off of things for a while but at the same time he felt like he needed some time to rest and think things out. His mind was still stuck on what happened a month ago in the final battle between good and evil.

The day he let his present and past friend down.

Even after a month had passed, Seiya still felt guilty about what had to be done in order to stop Hades from destroying Sanctuary and possibly the whole world. Even if Shun had demanded such things to be done Seiya still couldn't believe they had actually gone through with it.

But his guilt was running deeper than not having been able to help Shun. His guilt went all the way back to the 18th century when he hadn't been able to help his best friend Alone when he had been revealed as Hades next incarnation.

The face of the kind and gifted artist before and after the possession was forever imprinted in Seiya's mind and it would never vanish no matter how hard he tried to forget.

During the war with Hades, Seiya discovered that he was indeed the Pegasus saint that always fought along side Athena. Anytime she was reincarnated he was as well. The war against Hades had revived Seiya's memories of his previous life as Tenma who grew up an orphan in Italy along side the orphan siblings Sasha and Alone and later, after learning he had a cosmo, had trained under Gold Saint Dohko of Libra in Sanctuary where he once again won his Pegasus cloth and became a saint for Athena once more.

Seiya had to admit that he didn't want to right away believe that he was the legendary Pegasus saint said to be the strongest in Athena's army but his memories were too strong for him to ignore.

Remembering bits of several other memories with friends in lifetimes before, Seiya felt that no matter how many times he was reincarnated with a different face and name as long as he had his friends and could serve Athena he would always feel like the same person.

"Seiya? Are you alright? You've been very quiet today?"

The young man looked up to see Aiolos in his regular training clothes.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Just remembering happier times." Seiya answered.

"It's good to do that at times." Aiolos said sitting down with Seiya.

"Yeah, but it's not really helping me get over this guilt."

"Guilt is never easy to overcome no matter how hard you try." Aiolos stated. "I know that Shun doesn't want us to feel guilty from what happened but it's very difficult not to. It was incredibly difficult to do something like that to one of our own after all. I must admit that I still have trouble getting to sleep at night."

Seiya nodded and looked up toward the palace past the remaining temples. Naturally it was the first thing to be fixed after the battle since Athena stayed there. Everything had been fixed and cleaned up so now it looked almost new.

And underneath the palace a secret was hidden.

"You can go see him if you want." Aiolos said.

"I think I will." Seiya said standing. "Maybe seeing Shun for a while will ease my guilt a bit."

"Take your time. No curfew today." Aiolos said with a smile before heading back into the temple.

Seiya lightly smiled and started making his way up the flight of stairs that would take him past the rest of the zodiac temples and directly to the palace.

Having gone up and down the stairs so many times Seiya had quickly gotten use to them though he still often wondered why so many were needed.

Inside the Capricorn temple, Shura was so busy cleaning the statue he had of Athena giving a warrior the great Excalibur sword that he didn't even see Seiya walking by. Deciding not to bother him, Seiya kept walking and soon found himself at the Aquarius temple.

Just outside the entrance of the temple, Seiya felt the chilly air radiating from inside. His body started to shiver the further inside he went.

Almost instantly, he spotted the only two people who could possibly live in this environment. Camus and Hyoga were sitting at a table playing a game of chess and it looked like Hyoga was having trouble trying to figure out a way to win.

"Hey Seiya," Hyoga greeted after moving his knight.

"Hey Hyoga. Hi Camus." Seiya greeted.

"Enjoying your day off?" Camus asked easily spotting Seiya's shivering and had to smirk at his actions.

"Everything's going good so far." Seiya answered. "I'm still never going to understand how you two can live like this."

Hyoga chuckled. "It's just fine for us but you should probably get back out in the sun before you get frostbite or hypothermia."

"Right." Camus agreed moving one of his chess pieces.

"Alright. I'll see you guys later after I thaw out." Seiya said heading towards the back exit.

"Poor Seiya." Hyoga chuckled. "He never liked this cool atmosphere."

"Maybe one day he'll get use to it. He's still a saint after all." Camus said moving a chess piece. "Checkmate."

Once outside and back in the sun Seiya felt the warmth starting to return to his body as he made his way up the stairs. Now the Pisces temple was left to go through. Hopefully Aphrodite would once again be tending to his garden.

Out of the Gold Saints, Aphrodite was one of the few who never gave Seiya any kind of torture. All he would hear from the self proclaimed most beautiful saint was skin and hair care tips and that his roses were off limits. Only he and Athena were allowed to touch them.

Naturally the others were going to take his warning. Right now the flowers weren't poisonous but once the poison was starting to emit from the flowers there was no way that anyone was going near them.

Seiya didn't see Aphrodite anywhere inside trying to 'better' his appearance but quickly spotted the saint outside tending to his roses. Most of the red flowers had been replanted and were quickly growing but some of the stairway was still visible and someone could still walk by.

The new flowers were growing more beautiful than the ones before and Aphrodite wasn't sure of that since he claimed that he gave his roses the best attention possible. Seiya could only suggested that the new beautiful flowers were probably saying that peaceful times were finally here.

The Pegasus saint nearly laughed when he saw Aphrodite quickly watering his huge rose garden. Luckily for Seiya, the 'poison' hadn't been applied to these flowers yet so he didn't have to worry about inhaling the toxic air or getting scratched by one of the thorns.

"Hello Seiya." Aphrodite greeted pausing in his watering task once he saw the younger man.

"Hey Aphrodite, how's the garden coming?" Seiya asked.

"Remarkably quick and well." The Pisces saint answered proudly. "Very soon they shall be as deadly and poisonous as the first garden."

"Greatly." Seiya said slowly. "Well, I'll get out of you hair so you can finish this."

"Are you going to see Shun?" Aphrodite asked.

"Yeah." Seiya answered.

"Can you give these to him while you're there?" Aphrodite asked picking up a bundle of the reddest roses he had and handing them to Seiya.

Seiya smiled taking the flowers. "Sure thing. I'll tell him you sent them."

Aphrodite nodded with a smile and watched as Seiya continued on towards the palace as the younger saint made sure to stay clear of the blooming roses.

[_**Hidden chamber**_]

The hallway to the hidden chamber was dark with the only light coming from a few lit torches and the only sounds were his footsteps. Seiya figured someone else had to be here since the torches were lit.

To prevent anyone else from coming into this area, Athena had set up an invisible barrier that would only allow herself, the gold saints and the bronze saints to enter once it recognized each of their individual cosmo. Anyone else who tried to get past the barrier would need the permission and/or presence of Athena herself otherwise it would simply act as a force field and keep anyone and everyone away from reaching the hidden room.

Seiya walked into the hidden chamber to see Athena standing in front of the ice block where Shun was 'sleeping'. Obviously she had been here quite a while since there were a few new things in the room.

The Pegasus saint noticed that the Andromeda cloth chest was sitting on a stone side table against the left wall with a white silk cloth under the box. Seiya knew that the Andromeda armor was incomplete inside the chest because the gold chains were missing as they were still wrapped around Shun's body inside the ice.

There was also a large full body painting on the right wall of Shun wearing the Andromeda God cloth with the great Andromeda nebula painted in the background. It was framed in a beautiful gold frame and placed perfectly on the wall. Under the painting there was another stone side table that had a few lit candles on it and a few framed photo's of Shun and friends.

Two pictures were of him with Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga and Ikki in their Bronze armor and then a casual one on the beach, another was a group photo of all the Gold and Bronze saints, another was of him and Ikki and the one that caught Seiya's eye most was the only picture of Shun in his childhood.

He had seen it once before. It was him and Ikki when Ikki was just a little boy and Shun was still a baby. Ikki was holding Shun who was wrapped in a pink blanket smiling like what was going on was play time. The picture had been taken when they had been found by agents for the Graude Foundation.

Looking away from the pictures of better times, Seiya walked over and knelt to Athena although he wasn't sure she knew he was there.

"You've been feeling more restless than usual as well?" Athena asked softly surprising Seiya a little.

"Yes," he answered. "I've been remembering things from our previous life and I actually remember a few things from before. I'm wondering if fate has made it to where the three of us know each other so well only for us to be turned against one another in the end."

"I've often wondered about that as well Seiya." Athena said. "The three of us have met and known each other time and time again in previous lives. Either we have been friends, relatives or just met by chance but something always brought us together. We would come to know each other and form close friendships only to find out that we would have to fight against one another in a Holy War. It seems that fate does in fact have a cruel humor."

"It's not fair. For any of us." Seiya said standing and walking over to look up at Shun. His black hair was away from his face which held the peaceful expression he had before being frozen. Seiya could only assume that Shun felt comfort knowing that they had found a way to keep Hades from returning to Earth.

"If there was a way to change fate I would do it and make sure that none of this happens to us anymore." Seiya declared feeling his eyes quiver as he looked at Shun before placing the bundle of roses at the base of the ice coffin. "Aphrodite sent you his best roses buddy."

"If changing fate were possible I would gladly help you in that task Seiya." Athena said with a weak smile.

Truthfully, she wanted all of this to end already. Every time that she was reborn she would come to know the Pegasus saint and have a close friendship with him and then she would meet the person who was Hades next reincarnation and become friends with them. After a peaceful time with them Athena would learn that the Holy War was closely approaching and that they would all possibly die only to repeat the cycle again.

The last Holy War was the hardest since Athena had to attack her own elder brother. They had been able to reach Alone's human side for a brief moment before Pandora showed her face and ruined everything.

And in the end everyone lost.

Seiya placed his hand on the ice and the instant chill made him remove his hand. He frowned looking at Shun. He was stuck in there feeling nothing but the freezing ice that held him captive and the ice block was inside an underground chamber where it was at a cold temperature all day.

The only window in the room had been right above the ice block on the back wall but it had been removed so no one would discover what was really inside the chamber.

The only people who knew where Shun was located were the ones who put him here. Athena and her Gold and Bronze saints. They were the only people who knew the exact location and they were the only ones who could ever see him.

Turning from her friend sleeping in the ice, Athena looked to Seiya.

"Seiya, I wish to ask for your help for an important matter." she said.

Seiya quickly knelt to her. "Anything you wish Athena." he said.

"As you know, Shion, our last good pope, has left us. Sanctuary needs a new pope to help us whenever we need it. I want to ask you if you can help me decide which of the Gold Saints should be the next pope of Sanctuary."

"I'll help you however I can Athena." Seiya said with a gentle smile although in the back of his mind he already had an idea who she was going to pick to be pope.

The two started to leave the room so they could try to figure a few things out and hopefully get their minds off of Shun for a while. Before shutting the large iron doors, Seiya looked at Shun one last time.

_Things will be alright Shun. You won't have to be in there forever. I'll make sure of that._ he vowed silently as he shut the doors and started to follow Athena down the hall.

_One day, the team will be together again. I know it will._ Seiya thought as he helped Athena put out the flames of the torches. _Very soon we'll all be together again and hopefully things will be normal for once._


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

By: MimiYamatoForever

The dark night sky was quickly gathering with storm clouds and thunder could be heard in the distance but there was still enough clear sky to be seen and identify a few constellations.

Seiya was in the process of trying to locate every constellation of Athena's eighty-eight saints using a great telescope Aiolos had kept in a closet. He had a star chart in his hands and would put a small check mark next to the constellations he found. Already he had found the ten belonging to the Bronze saints and the twelve of the Gold Saints, but the others were proving difficult to find.

But as minutes went by, the telescope ended up on the Andromeda constellation and remained there for a while.

With a small sigh, Seiya sat back on the chair he had and looked at the chart in his hands. His constellation and Shun's were practically connected and maybe that was why they were such close friends.

Their constellations were nearly one in the same. Maybe that was another reason why they kept meeting every time they were reborn.

The stars had it to where each time they met in a new life they would become such close friends, almost like real brothers, and then something would happen to ruin it all. Maybe that was why their was that small gap in the patterns.

The gap represented the times they were driven apart. Driven apart by the horrors of what was to come in their lives.

"Here you are. Never knew you were one for star gazing Seiya."

Snapping out of his thoughts, Seiya turned to see Aiolos walk out of the temple.

"It helps calm me down sometimes." he answered.

"I do the same thing when I'm feeling stressed or a little blue." Aiolos said kneeling to look through the lense to see the telescope focused perfectly on the Andromeda constellation. Turning his attention from the stars, Aiolos saw that Seiya was holding a star chart.

On it he had little red check marks of the ones he must have found so far but what stuck out on the chart was that he had circled the Pegasus, Draco, Cygnus, Phoenix and Andromeda constellations. His own and he four men he fought in battle with.

Thunder rumbled a little closer and the clouds were now covering the remains of the clear sky. Seiya watched as the clouds covered the stars he had just been looking at. He never liked seeing this take place.

He always felt that when the clouds covered their constellations that something bad was going to happen. But maybe it was just his overactive imagination.

"How about we head back inside and have some hot chocolate before heading to bed?" Aiolos suggested picking up the telescope.

"Hot chocolate? That's not on our diet." Seiya joked halfheartedly folding the chair he had been sitting on.

"Just this once." Aiolos said with a smile as they walked back into the temple as the rain started to fall. "Besides, I more than likely guarantee that this weather is going to last a day or two."

"So indoor training tomorrow?" Seiya asked as they put the items in the closet.

"Take a rain check tomorrow." Aiolos replied as they headed into the kitchen. "I could never get myself to train when such weather is taking place. We can relax a little tomorrow but I at least want to see how your archery is coming along."

"Sounds perfect to me. The only thing I could ever do on rainy days was drag Hyoga and Shiryu outside and shove them in the mud when we were kids." Seiya said with a small smile as he poured water into a kettle.

"I remember those days with Aioria." Ailos said with a tone of rememberance. "You wouldn't think so but Aioria was quite a handful when he was a child. He had about as much energy as you do and I could never get him to stay still or take a nap. It didn't help when he and Milo became close friends growing up until their training kept them apart for a while."

"You're right, I wouldn't think any of that would happen." Seiya agreed. "I can easily believe Milo getting Aioria to help him prank everyone."

"That happened nearly every day." Aiolos chuckled pouring the hot water into two mugs. "But I am glad that Aioria grew into the man he is today. I wish he was here right now but I guess he felt like he should help the search parties find Ikki."

Seiya held the warm mug in his hands as the steam gently rose from it. Five weeks total had passed with no sign of Ikki. The Pegasus hated to see it happen but some people were starting to lose hope that Ikki would be found.

No one knew where he was sent after that battle on Olympus. Hades was the only one who might know but they sure weren't going to risk letting him out after everything they had to do to seal him away and they sure weren't going to let Shun's sacrifice go to waste.

_Just like our constellations, Shun and Ikki are apart so much. I really hope that Aioria finds him and brings him back. Having Ikki back may help me calm my nerves a bit. If Ikki doesn't kill us first._ Seiya thought taking a sip of his beverage.

[_**Aquarius temple**_]

It was easy for him to just reach his hand out and touch the rain. It brought back memories of his childhood with the others when they had been taken from their original homes to live with Athena when she was just Saori Kido.

Hyoga weakly smiled as he leaned his back against the stone pillar and memories came to him. On rainy days Mr. Kido wouldn't allow any outdoor training but the little boys who were robbed of a normal childhood would run outside and play in the rain and mud when the old man would be somewhere spoiling Saori further or doing paper work.

The blond man remembered the mud wrestling that Seiya would start with him and Shiryu and he remembered how furious Tatsumi would be when they would drag the mud into the mansion and they would be punished for it by not getting any supper.

Most of the kids who were there would take part in the rainy weather activities but there was always a certain older brother who prevented his little brother from such fun.

Hyoga remembered being outside running around in the rain and had spotted Shun looking out a window watching them. The look on the child's face said that he wanted to be out there with them more than anything but Ikki had been there at his side the whole time saying that he couldn't go outside or else he would get sick.

Looking out the window was the closest Shun ever got to going outside in the rain.

"Hyoga, are you alright?"

The said teen looked up to see his mentor walking over to him.

"I'm fine Camus." he answered. "This weather just brings back some old memories."

"I admit, this weather is very admirable." Camus said.

"Still, I can't help but feel exactly how the weather looks today." Hyoga said. "Gloomy and depressing."

"Are you still feeling guilty about the ending of the battle?" Camus asked seeming to have read Hyoga's mind.

"Yeah," Hyoga answered. "I knew what was going on and I knew what we had to do."

"That's true Hyoga and don't forget that." Camus said making sure to keep a sensitive manner. "Shun knew what had to be done as well and had asked for us to seal him and Hades away. We were just following orders and we did it for the right reasons. Like you said, we knew what we had to do."

"Yeah, I just can't help but feel guilty." Hyoga said.

"It's because Shun was one of your closest friends and having to do something like that didn't feel right to you."

"It didn't." Hyoga agreed. "But, Shun asked for us to seal him away to keep the world and everyone in Sanctuary safe. I will continue to feel guilty like this until the day that Shun can be free of the prison he's in."

"We'll all be waiting for that day." Camus said placing a reassuring hand on Hyoga's shoulder. "Don't stay out too long. Even ice saints can catch a cold."

Hyoga lightly smiled at his mentor before the older man went back into the temple. Once he was gone, Hyoga turned his attention back to the weather.

The clouds over Sanctuary were very dark and heavy with rain. There was a depressed look hanging on the clouds as the rain fell from them. Having just started, it was s sure sign that the rain was going to continue for a day or so.

No outdoor training would be taking place since some of the grounds around Sanctuary easily flooded or got too muddy. Athena didn't want to see any of her saints sick from training in the rain which was why she planned on having a second stadium built with a rooftop so the saints and soldiers could continue their training when such weather occured.

[_**Libra temple**_]

The weather outside was gloomy and cold but inside the Libra temple two people were enjoying a quiet dinner.

Both Dohko and Shiryu had been a little surprised when Athena allowed Shunrei to stay at Sanctuary in the Libra temple with the two of them. The chinese girl was free to come and go whenever she pleased but she seemed pretty happy just being able to be around Shiryu and Dohko.

Like before, Shunrei had cooked a great meal but tonight Shiryu wasn't really up to eating much. Dohko had gone to the Five Ancient Peaks to take care of a few things and wouldn't return for about a week.

"Shiryu?"

The young man looked up when he heard Shunrei call him.

"Yes Shunrei?"

"Are you alright Shiryu?" Shunrei asked. "You've been awfully quiet tonight."

"I'm fine Shunrei. I guess I just have my mind on other things right now." Shiryu answered.

"I guess that's why you haven't really eaten much tonight."

"I'm sorry Shunrei." Shiryu said with a weak smile. "You've made a wonderful dinner and I'm not even paying attention."

"Don't worry about it Shiryu." Shunrei replied smiling. "You told me about everything that's going on so I can understand why you're a little more quiet than usual. I know it may take a little time before things start getting close to normal again."

"Right as always." Shiryu said smiling a little more. "Although I admit that our lives have never really been normal, I do admit that they are returning to a predictable pattern."

Shunrei smiled at her best friend and not-so-secret crush.

A few minutes later after Shunrei insisted he relaxed, Shiryu was at the back entrance of the Libra temple looking up at the Sagittarius temple that was just a few dozen feet away. He wished that he could speak with Seiya of a way to help Shun be free of his cold imprisonment but the rain wasn't going to allow him to walk away from the temple.

Shiryu knew that if he so much as raised his foot to head outside into the rain that Shunrei would come knock him out cold and drag him back inside.

The dragon saint knew that he was exaggerating a bit but sometimes he did believe that Shunrei could be capable of such a task. Shiryu knew that when Shunrei was concerned about him she would do whatever it took to keep him from getting into any danger.

Shiryu did have to admit that he admired how much Shunrei cared for him. If he wasn't a saint, he knew that things would be different for the both of them.

The raven haired man came out of his thoughts when something wrapped around his arm. He smiled looking down to see Shunrei holding onto him with her head against his shoulder.

_I do hope that things will change for the better._ Shiryu thought to himself. _That all of us can live peacefully and that one day Shun will be able to be free to live a normal life as well. I know that June of Chameleon must be wishing for the same thing._

[_**Palace**_]

"My goodness. The weather sure changed quickly didn't it Miss Athena?" A maid asked pouring a cup of tea and handing it to the war goddess.

"It has." Athena agreed taking the cup of tea and taking a sip before looking out the window once more.

"It will certainly give the farmers in the villages healthy crops to harvest." the maid, named Akia, said happily.

"And the children in all of the villages will be able to swim in the lakes and rivers now. Especially since it's summer time now." Athena agreed.

"Still I wonder where this rain came from so quickly." Akia said gazing out the window.

_It is a little strange._ Athena thought to herself.

"It's almost time for dinner miss. I better go and help the others." Akia said with a deep curtsy.

Athena smiled and watched the woman leave the room with the door closing behind her. Once she was alone, the purple haired goddess looked out the window that was one of the few places to have a view over looking all twelve zodiac houses.

The teenage woman nearly laughed easily seeing Aphrodite standing outside the back of his temple wearing a rain coat and setting up a rain measure method to see how much watering his roses were getting while he had a clipboard ready to write all of this information.

The war goddess had once heard Milo tell Camus that Aphrodite cared about his roses as if they were the rarest gems in the universe that needed round the clock care in order to be kept in perfect condition.

To the Pisces saints surprise, most of the other saints agreed with the scorpion.

Athena also remembered Seiya telling her that Aphrodite to make the roses even deadlier than before but it was taking a little longer than he planned and the poison still needed to be added.

A thoughtful expression crossed the goddesses face as she looked over the twelve houses of the zodiac.

Out of all the houses only four had pupils learning to be the next gold saints, one was out helping look for the missing saint that was also suppose to be his pupil and the other seven had didn't have their pupils yet since they didn't know who they were suppose to teach.

It was becoming a serious matter that needed to be taken care of quickly.

As much as she didn't want to think about it, Athena knew that her current Gold Saints weren't going to be around forever. It was wishful thinking but wasn't possible. The next generation of Gold Saints needed to be trained and ready to guard the twelve temples like the current saints.

Turning her eyes from the twelve temples Athena looked up at the sky. The maid was right about the rain coming so unexpectedly. And it looked like the rain wasn't going to let up for some time.

This was strange weather. Usually, rain wasn't often or so sudden and it would normally last a few hours at the most.

Hopefully this was just a quick rain storm that just came out of nowhere and would be gone by morning.

[_**Virgo temple**_]

As usual, Shaka kept himself busy by trying to meditate. Just wearing his regular Buddha clothing and the only sound in the temple being the echo of the falling rain outside, the blond man sat in the center of the gold lotus pedestal trying to concentrate his cosmo to bring himself some inner peace.

Yet, for once, it wouldn't come.

He was sad deep down. Sad that he wouldn't have Shun as a pupil to teach and one day inherit the Virgo cloth. Now he had to decide which of his two top students would have the honor to fully train under their master.

Shiva of Peacock or Agora of Lotus.

Both were promising canditates and it was difficult to decide which one could be the next Virgo saint and be the protector of the sixth temple.

But Shaka didn't want his two top students to be his future replacement. As cold as he knew it seemed, he wanted them to stay where they were.

Students fully willing to serve and obey the Virgo saint. Which is what Shaka wanted Shun to be.

The power he had seen come from Shun so many times. The battles against Pisces Aphrodite, Asgard God warriors, Poseidon's Marine generals...

Shaka had never thought such power was inside of Shun and that power could have been multiplied tenfold if fate had allowed it.

_That blasted demon Hades!_ Shaka yelled in his mind deciding to forget his meditation and head to bed early. _How dare he! First he has the nerve to show his face in Sanctuary and force Athena into giving him her title, then he tricked Zeus into giving him the title as king of the Gods, then coming back to Sanctuary threatening to release the kraken and then finally trying to strike Athena only for his own incarnation to take control at the last second and demand for both their souls and his body to be sealed inside the ice coffin._

Up until the end of the battle against Hades, Shaka never realized how much of an influance the Bronze Saints had on him and the other Gold Saints.

But Shaka had been taken back the most by Shun and Ikki.

Both brothers so willing to protect the other with their very life. Truely the brother's bond Shaka had taught his many pupils to have with each other, even though he himself never established it with anyone and he was sure the same thing applied to his students.

Now Ikki was missing and Shun was sealed in a freezing prison doomed to remain there until a solution was found. And the possible solution didn't look to be in the future any time soon.

For now, the peace they had all wished for was spread over the world. With the last of the deities sealed away there was no longer any threat to the saints or Athena. But with two of their own gone, they knew they couldn't be truely happy.

Not until they were all together again.

And who knew when that would be.

Shaka knew that with Ikki missing and Shun sealed, Athena was feeling depressed even though she tried her best not to show it. But he could tell. The way her eyes were filled with sadness any time someone mentioned the two brothers.

Before sleep dominated his mind, Shaka vowed that he would try to find a way to solve this problem and get Athena's entire army complete once more.

[_**Rethymno, Crete**_]

Leo Aioria sighed deeply as he gave the order for the soldiers to turn in for the night and they would start the search again in the morning.

The lion saint was getting more frustrated and worried by the day. He knew that it was getting close to hopeless on finding Ikki. There was only one other village on Crete to check and if Ikki wasn't there than the search would have to be called off.

It wasn't fair to keep the soldiers away from home for too long and if Ikki was still alive somewhere out there then it was a sure thing that he would be heading to Sanctuary.

Now the sky was dark and the waves of the ocean were rolling onto shore while the soldiers gathered around separate campfires to relax.

Aioria on the other hand decided to try to calm himself with a little walk around the shoreline.

The moon was half hidden because of some gathering clouds so he didn't have much light to see. Either way, he kept walking. Hoping that by just a pure stroke of luck that he would find a clue as to where Ikki may be.

With over a month of time, they all felt that the phoenix saint should have reached Sanctuary a long time ago. They all wanted Ikki to return as quickly as possible. He needed to be told what happened to Shun.

_Ikki, where are you?_ Aioria asked himself. _Why haven't you returned to Sanctuary? Why haven't we found a clue as to where you might be? Were you even transported back to Earth?_

The young saint came out of his thoughts when he spotted someone sitting on the shore with a cloak wrapped around his body and a small campfire blazing next to him.

_He's sitting too close to that fire. He'll hurt himself._ Aioria thought deciding to go over and see if this person was aware of this fact.

The closer Aioria got to the person the more he realized that there was something familiar about them. The hair style and color looked oddly familiar to him.

"Excuse me sir?"

The person turned to face the Leo saint when he spoke and both of them went into a state of shock.

_It can't be!_ Aioria shouted in his head. _It's Ikki! Has he been here all this time? So close to Sanctuary and he never bothered to head back?_

"IKKI!"

"Aioria?"

"Ikki!" The young lion was utterly stunned to see the man standing before him. He didn't looked harmed in any way and appeared to have taken care of himself well while he was gone. "How? Have you been here all this time?"

Ikki shut his eyes and nodded once. It was plain to see that he felt sad and guilty about something but Aioria wasn't sure what.

Could he be feeling guilty that he was finally located when he was trying to be in secrecy? Or was he feeling guilty because of what happened on Olympus and he hadn't been there to help?

"Well, now that I've found you, I can take you back to Sanctuary. Athena and everyone else are very worried about you and they want you to come back. Athena wants to tell you what happened to Shun after you were sent back to Earth."

"I already know." Ikki stated turning his back to the older man to look at the sea.

"What?" Aioria gasped. "How could you possibly know what happened?"

"Aioria, you of all people should know that all brother's have a linking bond between them that can be felt no matter how far apart they are." Ikki answered. "After I surrendered my Godhood and was sent back to Earth, I ended up here on Crete. I'm not totally sure how I ended up here but I felt through my cosmo what happened. I knew that something had happened to Shun. Something bad. I felt his cosmo completely vanish along with Hades."

_So he knows it happened but now _how_ it happened._ Aioria thought trying to not show a sad expression as he recalled the first sight he saw when the fight was over inside the throne room.

Shun encased inside the ice coffin.

"Aioria,"

The said man snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the phoenix saint call his name.

"Uh, yes?"

"Tell me, what _exactly_ happened to my brother?" Ikki asked.

Aioria didn't fail to noticed that Ikki's eyes were demanding to be told everything about his dear little brother. But Aioria wasn't sure if he could explain every detail from A to B and everything in between to Ikki.

Aioria would feel like he was reliving everything that happened and he was sure that Ikki's mind and heart wouldn't be able to take what happened.

One thing that Aioria knew about older brothers, they had a ton of emotions when it came to their siblings.

It was a widely known fact that Ikki could be a little unstable when it came to his emotions if certain topics were brought up. And no other thing angered or upset the phoenix more than when something happened to his only brother.

Ikki was an ideal brother in many ways. Always so protective of his younger sibling and would make sure that no harm came to him so he could always be the sweet child he always was.

_Just like my brother._ Aioria thought fondly picturing the face of his brother he hasn't seen in the past month.

"Aioria! Tell me what happened!" Ikki demanded almost angrily.

Deciding not to get Ikki more upset, Aioria sat him down and started explaining everything.

He told Ikki how after he was sent to Earth that Hades threatened to release the kraken on Sanctuary and all of the villages around it. The only way that Hades had been stopped was when he had nearly stabbed Athena with his sword only for Shun to take over at the last second and called his gold nebula chains to trap his body and both his and Hades cosmo long enough for Athena to give the order for Hyoga and Camus to combine their powers to make the ultimate ice coffin where his body would be sealed.

He further explained how they had moved the ice coffin to a hidden location deep within the palace where only the Gold and Bronze saints, as well as Athena, could enter since the war goddess had set up a barrier that would recognize their cosmo and let them in.

So Ikki at least had the comfort of knowing that his younger brother was in the safest place possible.

When he was done explaining everything, Aioria looked at Ikki since he had been extremely quiet through the whole explanation. The fire saint's eyes were heavily quavering and it was easy to spy the tears that were collecting in his blue eyes. It was a sure thing they were going to spill over soon.

_I understand how he feels._ Aioria thought looking at the fire in front of him. Somehow the burning flames had a somewhat calming affect on him.

"I should have been there!" Ikki quietly yelled as his tears started racing down his cheeks and falling onto the sand.

"Ikki,"

"Don't even try to tell me otherwise Aioria." Ikki suddenly snapped. "Despite what happened I should have been there."

"Then come back with me to Sanctuary. We can leave in the morning or right now if you want. Everyone is worried about you since you've been gone so long and we're all waiting for the day that you'll be back in Sanctuary. I know that you weren't there when Shun was sealed inside the ice coffin but you can be there for him now and the day that he can be free from it."

Ikki looked up at the sky with tears still streaming down his face. He easily found the Andromeda constellation and the kind face of his little brother came to mind.

After they had received their cloths, Shun had been trying to think of something to keep them together but Ikki would always up and vanished before anything could happen.

Ikki knew that Shun didn't like it when he would go off on his own and only come back when there was something important or dangerous going on. The phoenix could only guess how Shun would feel when he was gone.

Probably alone and not sure when he would see his brother again.

Now the same thing was happening again. Only this time it was under different circumstances. Shun was trapped in an ice coffin and it was unclear of when he would be free of it.

Now it was Ikki who was unsure of when he would get to see his brother again.

Sure he could see him inside the coffin but he wouldn't see his smile, the joyful shine of his eyes or the sound of his voice.

"Ikki, please, come back with me to Sanctuary." Aioria said in a pleading tone.

"I will." Ikki replied wiping away his tears. "You're right Aioria. I wasn't there when Shun's body and soul were sealed away but I can be there for him when the day comes that he doesn't have to be in there anymore."

Aioria smiled greatly. At last, Ikki was found and heading back to Sanctuary.

But how would he react when he saw Shun?


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

By: MimiYamatoForever

The morning was filled with wind and a faint drizzle as the sea swirled under the ship and the sky was hidden behind the thick dark rain clouds. Aioria was upset that the weather was like this. He had hoped for calm waters for the ship to sail smoothly and quickly back to Greece. But it seemed that the weather was against him today as he spotted the pouring rain in the distance looking like a dark curtain. Was this the same weather in Sanctuary?

All Aioria knew was that he greatly needed some peace, quiet and time to relax and he was sure Ikki needed it too. The phoenix had taken the news of his little brother quite hard and had to be left alone for a while to calm down. Now they were all on the ship sailing back to Greece and to Sanctuary.

Despite the depressing weather, the Leo saint was glad to be going home. The search had lasted a little longer than a month and it had been exhausting on him and the soldiers that had accompanied him. They had searched all over Greece, the remains of Death Queen Island and even Japan but Ikki had all this time only been an island away.

Aioria knew that Ikki hadn't got much sleep the previous night and would more than likely sleep in this morning. He hoped he would. The young bronze saint could use the rest. The shock of hearing what happened to his brother and being alone on the island for so long took its toll on Ikki.

_How is Ikki going to react when he sees Shun?_ Aioria asked himself. _It was hard for all of us to see him trapped inside that ice coffin after the fighting stopped. I wasn't there when it happened but even I have nightmares about the battle. I wish Shun hadn't offered to sacrifice himself like that, even if it did mean sealing Hades away._

A noise caught his ears and brought the lion saint out of his thoughts. He turned and saw none other than Ikki walking over.

"Ikki? You're up rather early."

"I couldn't really sleep so I thought I might as well stay up." Ikki answered. His face looked tired and there were faint but sure signs of tear marks on his cheeks. A positive sign that he had been crying some time during the night. Most likely about his brother and the guilt he was feeling from not being there even though it wasn't his fault.

"We should be in Greece in a little over an hour." Aioria informed.

"Good. As soon as we get there I have to see my brother." Ikki said gripping the railing. Aioria noticed the tight grip of the younger saint.

"Believe me Ikki, it would be better if you have someone with you when you see Shun." Aioria advised.

"No." Ikki replied calmly. "I have to be alone when I see him."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Aioria nodded once. "Then perhaps it would be wise for you to rest for the remaining time of the voyage. You'll need to have a rested and alert mind when we return to Sanctuary."

Ikki nodded and quietly headed back to his room. Aioria wasn't sure if Ikki would be able to rest since they were getting closer to Greece, closer to Sanctuary and closer to the saint with the purest heart in Athena's army who was sleeping inside a freezing block of ice.

_I pray that Ikki will be alright after seeing his brother in such a state._ Aioria thought looking over the horizon to see the line of rain heading toward the ship.

Though the sun was hidden, the day has started and the Leo saint felt that it was going to be a _long_ one. He was looking forward to some rest when they were back in Sanctuary.

[_**Sanctuary**_]

Aiolos had been surprised when he saw Seiya was already awake. Normally, Aiolos would have to wrestle the young man out of bed so he could get ready for his morning training but the Sagittarius saint knew something had to be on Seiya's mind for him to be up this early.

The bronze saint was still in his pajama's when Aiolos had spotted him standing near the entrance of the temple where it was easy to see it was still raining. The potted plants that Aiolos had placed outside the temple entrance to get watered were now over flowing with rain water.

But the archer wasn't worried about the plants right now. He wanted to figure out what it was to get Seiya up before six in the morning.

"Seiya? Are you alright?"

The said teen looked at his mentor. "I'm fine. I had a dream that woke me up is all."

"Was it a nightmare?"

"No." Seiya answered. "I think it was a memory from my life as Tenma. And Sagittarius Sisyphus was in it."

"What happened?" Aiolos asked.

"It was when Alone, or rather Hades, had invaded Sanctuary." Seiya started. "He said he had been there to take care of some important business and apparently he just wanted to be rid of Sisyphus because it was him who had adopted Sasha when he learned she was really Athena. I didn't get there in time but I was able to see that Sisyphus had tried to shot Alone with one of his gold arrows and Alone ended up reflecting it back to him. But Sisyphus hadn't died. He was just trapped in dream world."

Seiya looked outside at the dark clouds.

"I'm not sure if it was a memory or not since I hadn't been there personally to see it happen but it gave me enough of a scare to wake me up. Nearly the same situation happened when we were fighting Poseidon. He had reflected the gold arrow back on me and the other saints but we survived. I guess I was just shaken up about it and that's why I'm up so early."

Aiolos was a little quiet. He had talked to Dohko about the previous Sagittarius saint and the Libra saint gave him everything he needed to know about how the man 'died' since Dohko had been there when it happened.

But Dohko had told him that Sisyphus had made a mistake when he tried to kill Hades in Alone's body. Aiolos had been told that Pope Sage and Athena had made a trap to limit Hades power. A talisman cage. Dohko had said that Sisyphus didn't know about the trap and that was why he tried taking the action of killing Alone in his own hands. If he had known about it there was almost a sure chance that killing Hades would have worked.

But the fallen archer had come back to help Athena and Tenma. He met his end when he allowed Pharaoh Sphinx to test his heart on the magic scale and learned that his heart was indeed pure.

"I was so shaken that when I woke up I checked on you. I don't know why but I thought something might have happened to you." Seiya said.

Aiolos felt touched that Seiya was so worried about him but he also felt sad that his memories from the past were haunting him like this.

"Seiya, I know that your dream got to you a little but just remember that all it was was just a dream. I know you were worried about me but the situation for that to happen isn't possible right now. Maybe you should relax for the day. Your memories as Tenma are obviously troubling you a bit. Maybe you should see Athena and ask if she can block the memories."

"I don't want them blocked." Seiya admitted. "I know that my memories are coming back and I'm only remembering things I don't want to remember, but I can still recall the better times with Alone and Sasha before we were separated. I don't want to forget that. Not again."

Aiolos lightly smiled seeing Seiya was remembering a pleasant memory. Most likely a time with the previous incarnations of Athena and Shun.

"Well, take the day off anyway. The rain isn't going to let us train again so just relax. Just remember that tonight we're gathering at Milo's temple for dinner." Aiolos said putting on his coat to fetch his plants.

"Did he ever get those cages for his '_pets_' fixed?" Seiya asked a bit nervously.

"Yes," Aiolos chuckled pouring the water out of the first pot. "I saw them fixed just two days ago. I'm relieved as well. I don't feel comfortable with wild scorpions on the lose."

"Me either." Seiya agreed before he heard the flapping wings of a bird. He looked outside in time to see a messenger bird fly overhead and heading toward the palace.

"That was a messenger bird." he stated.

"A message to Athena most likely." Aiolos added.

"But who would send it?" Seiya asked.

[][][]

Inside the palace, Athena had been up for a few minutes herself when a bird flew into her room through the open balony door. The red and blue bird landed on a chair near the door and shook his little body to gets as much rain water off him as he could.

"Hello there." Athena greeted to the bird as it chirped and she spotted the message attached to its ankle. Carefully, she untied the note from the bird and unrolled it to see what it said.

_To Lady Athena,_

_Under the guidance of Gold Saint Aioria of Leo, Phoenix Ikki has been located on the outskirts of the island Crete. He is in good physical condition and has been informed of the condition of his brother Andromeda Shun. The Leo ship will be arriving in Greece in less than one hour._

Athena gasped when she finished reading the message. Dropping the note, she quickly changed and hurried out of her room. She needed to gather all of the saints and let them know that Aioria had found Ikki and they were going to arrive shortly.

She hurried down the hallway and finally spotted a few soldiers doing their morning rounds.

"Soldiers." she called.

Seeing it was their goddess calling them, the four soldiers quickly kneeled to her. "Yes Lady Athena." they said together.

"Please, I need you to gather all of the Gold and Bronze saints. Tell them to come to the throne room as soon as possible. It's very urgent they get here right away." Athena said.

"Yes ma'am." The soldiers agreed before standing and saluting to her before taking off with great speed.

With the soldiers gathering the saints, Athena quickly went to the throne room where she retrieved her gold staff. The whole time she was in a small state of shock.

All this time, Ikki had been on the island of Crete and didn't even bother trying to come back to Sanctuary? Why would he do something like that?

Of course, after growing up with him, Athena knew that Ikki had the habit of going off on his own after battles and his brother was the only one who could get him to stay in one place when she couldn't.

But how was he going to react when he came back to Sanctuary and was taken to the chamber where Shun was being kept?

The war goddess knew that Ikki wasn't going to take it well. She just hoped that he wouldn't try to break open the ice coffin. He could hurt himself in the process if he tried that since the ice coffin was unbreakable to everyone except the gods.

The war goddess could only hope that Aioria had given Ikki the exact details of why this outcome came to be and she could only hope that Ikki was in the right state of mind when he arrived and saw the condition of his little brother.

Somehow, she knew that it wasn't going to be as easy as she wanted.

[_**Aquarius temple**_]

"Athena wants us all to gather in the palace?" Hyoga repeated.

"Yes sir," the soldier confirmed. "She asks that all Gold and Bronze saints gather in the throne room right away for an urgent announcement."

"We'll be there right away. Just gather the rest of the saints." Camus ordered.

"Yes sir." The soldier replied with a salute to the two ice saints before leading the group through the temple and down toward the Capricorn temple.

"I wonder what could be so urgent that Athena needs all of us to get together." Hyoga wondered.

"It must be a very urgent matter. Hurry and get dressed so we can see what she needs." Camus declared.

"Yes sir." Hyoga replied and hurried into his room where he quickly changed into his Cygnus cloth. he went back out into the main room where he spotted Camus already in his gold cloth of aquarius.

Together the two ran out the back of the temple and hurried up the stairs. They ignored the pouring rain beating down onto them as they hurried up the stairs toward the Pisces temple. They were sure that Aphrodite had already hurried to the palace since he was the first one the soldiers would have reached first.

The two ice saints hurried through the building and when they reached the back they saw that there was still a clear strip of stairway for them to use and they had spotted a note by the back door left by the saint of beauty.

_The roses are not poisonous._

Having seen that note, the two saints didn't waste time and hurried along the clear path. The narrow strip only allowed them to follow one behind the other.

The whole time they were running, Hyoga couldn't help but wonder why Athena was calling them all together.

Did it have something to do with Shun? Or was it Aioria? Had something happened when he was looking for Ikki?

The blond saint would have to wait until all of the saints were in front of Athena to hear what was going on. He hoped that it wasn't anything bad.

He was even hoping that maybe Athena had found a way to allow Shun to escape the ice coffin without having to be possessed by Hades.

He and Camus had entered the palace soaking wet. Luckily there were a few maids waiting with towels and blankets.

The two grabbed a blanket each and kept heading to the throne room. Once they were in the grand room they both nearly laughed when they saw Aphrodite standing in a full body rain coat complete with a pink umbrella and rain hat.

"Where's Athena?" Hyoga asked keeping the blanket wrapped around his body to soak up the rain that still clung to his hair and skin.

"She wasn't here when I arrived." Aphrodite answered. "I guess she's waiting for all of us to be present to tell us what's going on."

"Do you know what it might be about?" Camus asked.

"No." The fish saint answered. "The soldiers just came saying that Athena wanted all of us to gather here for an urgent matter. Perhaps she found a way to free Shun."

"I certainly hope so." Hyoga stated.

"Let's wait until she tells us what's so urgent." Camus said hearing someone running toward them. Sure enough, Shura hurried into the room wearing a poncho.

The others started to arrive a few minutes at a time. Mu and Kiki had teleported to the room so they were spared from having to run in the rain.

"What's going on?" Shiryu asked wrapped in a blanket as he walked to Hyoga and Seiya.

"No clue." Seiya answered. "Before the soldiers arrived, Aiolos and I were just talking about the proper way to string bows and arrows but that was after I noticed a messenger bird heading for the palace."

"A messenger bird?" Hyoga repeated.

"Do you think Aioria found Ikki?" Shiryu asked with hope heavy in his voice.

"He did Shiryu." a voice answered.

The saint quickly whirled around and saw Athena standing by her throne. The saints kneeled to her.

"Aioria found Ikki?" Aiolos asked.

"He did." Athena answered with a happy smile. "The messenger bird that Seiya spotted earlier was from Aioria's ship. He found Ikki on the island of Crete and is bringing him back right now. They'll be arriving shortly."

"Wait, Ikki's been on Crete this whole time?" Kanon exclaimed shocked.

"He has but Aioria will explain everything when they arrive which should be in less than thirty minutes." Athena answered.

[_**Outside Greece**_]

The ship with the zodiac symbol of Leo on the sail had just anchored in the peer of the village. Seeing the symbol on the sail, local fishermen rushed over to help the people on the ship.

The men helped the soldiers secure the ship and once Aioria appeared in his Gold cloth the villagers offered to help with whatever they could.

Ikki was close behind Aioria in his phoenix cloth that had reverted back to its newer look after Mu had fixed it when it had been damaged in the battle against Saga.

Seeing two saints among them, the villagers started to offer things to them but the two kindly refused saying they needed to hurry back to Sanctuary.

Aioria had been disappointed to see that the weather in Greece was almost like it had been during the war against Poseidon. Dark, gloomy and not looking to let up any time soon. Hopefully, the villagers would get the flood barracks up before the sea started to rise more.

Aioria and Ikki hurried up the path that would take them to Sanctuary. The path was getting heavy with mud and it stained their cloths. Ignoring the mud on them, the two saint kept running and soon they were near the outer entrance of the Sanctuary.

"Halt!" a voice yelled. The two saints stopped and saw a soldier. "Aioria sir. You've returned."

"Yes," Aioria confirmed. "Tell me, how long has it been raining?"

"This is the third day sir." the soldier answered. "Go on ahead sir. I heard that Athena was having a meeting with the other saints in the palace."

The Leo nodded and he and Ikki continued on. Soon the muddy pathway gave way to stone and rock which made it easier for them to run. Within a few minutes more of running, the buildings and small homes of the Sanctuary started to appear and soon they spotted the palace.

Because of the rain, barrels and buckets had been placed outside the houses to gather water and the covers on the wells had been left open as well.

The two saints rushed towards the flight of stairs that would take them through the twelve houses and straight to the palace. When they went through the first house they saw that Mu and Kiki weren't anywhere to be seen.

"They must be at that meeting the guard told us about." Aioria figured as they exited the temple and headed up toward the Taurus house.

Ikki remained silent and just kept his mind on hurrying up the stairs while making sure he didn't slip. All he wanted right now was to get to the palace to see his brother. His heart and stomach were in knots and pain just from the time it was taking for him to get up these stupid stairs.

Each step he took in the direction of the palace felt like he was jumping back ten instead. Maybe it was because he didn't want to believe what Aioria had told him about Shun.

Was it because he didn't want to see his little brother frozen inside an ice coffin that he felt he was in such pain? Naturally, Ikki didn't want to believe what he had been told about his only sibling and family.

But was it all true? Had Shun sacrificed himself just so they could seal Hades away? Was Shun just a soulless body trapped inside an ice block?

Every part of Ikki was praying, begging, that everything he was told wasn't true. He didn't want to see Shun trapped in the ice coffin that would never be broken no matter what hit it.

The only things Ikki knew could break it were the weapons of the Libra cloth and Athena herself.

[][][]

Seiya lightly shivered under his blanket. He was sure he was catching a cold from having to run in the rain all the way to the palace. Hyoga wasn't showing any signs of a cold, most likely because he was so use to it and Shiryu had been close to the palace than he was so he wasn't doing too bad.

It had been twenty minutes since they had all gathered in the throne room. The waiting was getting to Seiya a little and he wasn't sure how much longer he could take it. He knew Athena said that Aioria would be arriving soon with Ikki but it seemed to be taking longer than what was said.

Being patient was never one of Seiya's strong points. That was more Shiryu's thing. Right now everyone was waiting for the time on the clocks in their minds to run out. The Gold saints were talking quietly to themselves, Aiolos was talking with Athena and the three Bronze saints were standing off to the side on their own.

"I can't help but feel like we've been separated again." Shiryu admitted sitting next to Seiya with his blanket hanging lose around his shoulders.

"Me too." Hyoga agreed. "Everything that's happened...almost feels like when we were kids. All of us were shiped off to train for our cloths and we didn't see each other for years."

"Feels like it's happening all over again." Seiya declared.

"Yeah. Ikki will be here in a few mintes but it feels longer and Shun is still trapped." Shiryu said with a sad tone at the last of his sentence. Seiya and Hyoga reflected his tone.

They had all thought of each other as brothers since they were children and now their little family had fallen apart. Who knew how long it would be before they were all completely together again.

There was a slow creaking noise and everyone snapped their attention to the opening doors. It seemed like everything was happening in slow motion as both doors swung open and on the other side were Leo Aioria and Phoenix Ikki.

Both were completely soaked and there were traces of mud on their cloths. The two looked tired and it was easy to tell they hadn't slept well in the past few days.

"Welcome home you two." Athena said warmly.

Aioria smiled and bowed to her before his brother came over and hugged him greatly.

Seiya, Shiryu and Hyoga however noticed Ikki's behavior. It was the same as before but he was...different. Normally when he heard something had happened to Shun he would come charging in, cosmo flaring and demanding to see his brother.

He didn't look too different. A little thinner and his hair got a little longer but he still looked like the same hardcore phoenix saint with the in-your-face attitude.

"Ikki?"

The phoenix saint looked up to see everyone looking at him. He knew what was on their minds. They would more than likely ask him why he hadn't gone back to Sanctuary since he was so close after the battle on Olympus.

"Ikki..." Seiya started before he was cut off by Ikki's hand.

"Before I answer any questions I have to see Shun." Ikki stated calmly.

Seiya, Hyoga and Shiryu tensed a little hearing that Ikki wanted to right away see his brother. Having grown up and fought with Ikki, they knew of his temper and his emotional status.

One look at Shun and Ikki would lose it for sure.

"Ikki, has Aioria explained everything to you?" Athena asked.

"Yes," Ikki answered. "He told me everything. That's why when I see Shun I want to be alone."

"Are you sure Ikki?" Shiryu asked.

The look on Ikki's face told the dragon and everyone else in the room that he was dead serious. On the plus side of that, it would keep everyone else out of harms way if Ikki lost it. Which was a sure thing to happen.

"Ikki, are you certain that you want to see Shun by yourself?" Athena asked.

"Yes."

Athena nodded once. "Very well. I'll take you to the chamber to get past the barrier but you can see Shun alone after that."

"Alright." Ikki agreed as Athena started walking down the steps toward the doors he and Aioria came through. He followed the war goddess down the hall and toward a staircase that went downstairs.

They they came to the bottom of the stairs and started walking down the dimly lit hallway, Ikki finally started to ask his questions.

"Why hasn't something been done to let Shun out of the ice coffin?"

Athena lowered her head a bit. "Ikki, please believe me when I say that I want to let Shun out of that ice prison more than anything in the world. But to free him would also mean to free Hades. Shun himself demanded to be sealed away along with Hades to stop him from bringing total destruction onto Sanctuary and Earth. It was the only way and I am trying to find a solution."

"Who else knows that Shun is down here?" Ikki asked.

"Just me and the Gold and Bronze saints." Athena answered. "We are also the only ones who can enter the area where Shun is. I've set up a barrier that will recognize our cosmo and let us through. Anyone else who tries to enter will be stopped by the barrier. The location is kept a secret so no one else will get curious and come looking."

Ikki nodded quietly. He at least had the comfort of knowing Shun was protected in a secret location where only a selected few were allowed to go.

The young saint stopped when he noticed Athena stopped walking. He was about to ask her why when he saw her raise her staff. It gave off a soft gold light and Ikki watched in amazement as an invisible wall appeared before them.

The wall shinned and glittered before it slowly faded away.

"Go on Ikki." Athena said and pointed straight ahead. "At the end of this hall there will be a chamber. That is where Shun is."

Ikki started walking and was a little cautious walking through the barrier. But he wasn't stopped and continued on. The small glow left from the barrier was the only light that Ikki had to see where he was going.

Soon he came to a set of metal doors. Easily, he opened the doors and pushed them in.

[][][]

"Athena,"

The saints watched as their goddess walked back into the room with her head slightly lowered.

"Are you alright?" Shaka asked.

"Yes, I'm just wondering how Ikki is going to react from seeing Shun." Athena answered.

"He won't take it very well." Hyoga said.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

By: MimiYamatoForever

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_Chapter dedicated to Retired Kitkat for saving first two parts of the Darkness Returns series and sending them to me to be re-written._

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Dread.

Guilt.

Failure.

All of these emotions and more were running through Ikki's mind and body. The emotions he was feeling right now were so great that he was starting to physically feel ill and weak as he stood in front of the doors that would take him into the room where his brother was.

His hands were on the handles and were lightly shaking. His fingers didn't seem to obey his brain telling them to open the doors so he can go inside.

But to be honest, part of him didn't want to see Shun.

Not like this.

Not in the way others described to him. He wasn't sure if his heart could take seeing Shun frozen and sealed away like that. Sure he had seen his only sibling with battles wounds from the many fights they had gone through together but Shun would always recover and heal from those injuries.

He couldn't do any of that like this. With his soul being sealed away there was zero chance of him being able to break out of the ice coffin and walking away from it.

Though he wasn't sure he wanted to see Shun like this, Ikki found the strength to open the doors and go inside.

[_**Throne room**_]

The weather was reflecting everyone's mood as they waited for a signal of how Ikki was taking seeing his brother. They knew that it wasn't going to be pleasant but they weren't exactly sure how bad it was going to get.

Would there be an explision? Would parts of the palace be destroyed out of anger and guilt? Or would everyone in Sanctuary feel a sudden flare come from Ikki's already fiery cosmo?

Seiya wished that he could be there with Ikki but the phoenix was set on going alone to see the former Andromeda saint and none of them were going to argue against his wishes. Especially if it was going to spare them from Ikki strangling their throats for answers as to why nothing had been done to free Shun yet.

The waiting was what was getting to some of the saints. While the Bronze saints were aware of Ikki's emotional status in certain situations, the Gold saints were completely in the dark about it. Sure they knew Ikki has an explosive temper and he was protective of those he cares about, especially his brother, but they had yet to see his real emotions or how they should handle it.

Hopefully, Ikki wouldn't take things too bad and he would agree to stay in Sanctuary and become the next Leo saint.

The young Pegasus saint looked around the room and saw the looks everyone had. Some looked tired, others worried, some nervous or they had a mix of all three.

He knew he was feeling all of those emotions and then some. He was tired from everything that was going on, worried about his friends and nervous of what today's outcome would be.

Every second that passed Seiya was tempted to take off to the hidden chamber and see how Ikki was. But he had to remember that Athena told them not to go to the chamber until Ikki returned or she asked someone to check on him. And it didn't seem like either one was going to happen soon.

Seiya wasn't sure how much time had gone by but he knew it's been quite awhile since Athena returned to the throne room alone. The young brunette man wondered how long Ikki would be in the chamber. Somehow Seiya knew that Ikki was going to be in the chamber longer than he figured.

Seiya came out of his thoughts when he heard Athena telling the saints that there was some food made for them in the dinning hall and that they should take this chance to rest a little. He wanted to say that he would wait here incase Ikki came back but something inside him told him that it was going to be awhile longer before they saw Ikki again.

Trusting the feeling he felt, Seiya decided to follow the other saints as they walked toward the dinning hall. He had to admit that he was getting a little hungry since it was still early morning and he hadn't had the chance to eat yet. He was sure the others hadn't eaten yet either.

_Ikki, I hope you're doing alright seeing Shun the way he is._ Seiya thought as he exited the throne room with the others.

[_**Outside palace**_]

Guarding soldiers were patrolling along a great wall that had been built around the Sanctuary grounds to prevent regular people from entering. Guard towers could be seen from the near by village and the walls were several feet thick.

The only way to get past the wall was through an iron gate that was well guarded. The only people who were approved to come and go as they please were the Gold and Bronze saints and Athena.

The current soldiers on duty were amazed at how much rain was gathering around the grounds. Going on for so many days, the rain has already overflowed in some dried up rivers, the farmers fields were getting over watered or ruined and there was a sure sign that there was going to be some flooding soon.

Still, villagers and people in Sanctuary were grateful for the rain. They did hope that it would end soon otherwise the rain would bring some devastation.

Two soldiers were standing in a guard tower watching as rain flowed around the great wall and headed off somewhere else.

"Think that Julian kid might be up to this again?" Soldier 1 asked.

"Might be." Soldier 2 answered. "He's still peeved that Athena wouldn't marry him."

"Still why would he try this again?" Soldier 1 asked lightly scratching his head before the fluttering sound of wings was heard. Just as quickly though the sound vanished.

[_**Dinning hall**_]

_Still nothing from Ikki._ Shiryu thought quietly as he and the others finished eatting in silence. Already a full two hours had past since Athena had returned from showing Ikki where the hidden chamber was and there was still no sign from Ikki of how he was handling the situation.

Shiryu expected an explosion or some kind of flare in Ikki's cosmo but he didn't hear anything yet. Hopefully, there wouldn't be any kind of explosion at all.

A few minutes more went by and the meals were finished. But no one wanted to leave the room just yet. The feeling and knowledge of being together was keeping them somewhat calm right now.

Now some of them were standing around the room talking to each other or others were sitting and chatting quietly to themselves.

The doors to the dinning hall opened and in walked their goddess. The second she was spotted the saints all kneeled to her.

"I have some news everyone." she announced.

"Is something wrong?" Aiolos asked right away.

"Is it Ikki?" Seiya added.

"No. It's not Ikki." Athena answered. "It's something else. Just a while ago we received a visitor here in Sanctuary."

"Is it an enemy?" Aldebaran asked.

"Should we inspect them for you?" Milo asked.

"No. It's not an enemy." Athena answered. "It's a messenger."

"A messenger?" Kiki repeated.

"That's what she said kid." a voice said from behind Athena.

"Who's there?" Camus demanded as all the saints stood in defensive stances when they heard the

voice behind the young woman they served.

Into the room walked a young man with short brown hair wearing a gold cap, a short white toga, winged sandals and holding a herald's wand.

"Who are you?" Seiya demanded.

"Hermes." Aiolos said. "Messenger of the gods."

"I'm honored you know of me." The man said with a smirk on his face.

"We know who you are. We want to know why you're here." DeathMask declared.

"My, my. So eager to get to the point. You humans will always continue to amaze me." Hermes taunted.

"Just tell us what your business is here." Kanon ordered.

"My business here is with Athena." Hermes replied. "But she has denied to hear anything I have to say unless her saints are present."

"What is it you want to tell her?" Aioria asked.

"It's actually a message from her elder brother Apollo." Hermes answered.

"Apollo?" Shiryu and Hyoga gaped.

"Yes, the God of the sun. He's requested I deliver an important message to Athena at once." Hermes said.

"What does he want?" Aiolos asked.

"He wants Athena to know that there is a new threat that will be surfacing soon. A very dangerous threat. Demi-Gods and ancient creatures are appearing. That's the reason that the weather all over Greece is like this. One of the first Demi-Gods to surface is a descendant of Poseidon and has control over all things water. He is the one causing all of this rain to fall over Greece. It's a warning."

"Hold on for a second." Seiya interrupted. "Why does Apollo want to help us all of a sudden?"

"After the battle on Olympus, Apollo decided to try to resolve matters with Athena." Hermes answered. "He wants to offer his help in any way that he can. That's why he asked me to deliver the message to inform you of the Demi-Gods and the monsters that were sealed away."

"Why couldn't he come himself?" DeathMask asked.

"Lord Apollo does not fair well in such weather and he was not allowed to leave Olympus by order of his father. I also have a written message from Zeus to you Athena and only you can know what is written on it."

Athena took the scroll that Hermes handed her. The symbol of Zeus was on the front of it and it was tied with gold colored string.

"Can we believe that everything you've told us is true?" Milo demanded wanting to bring his nail out to attack the messenger.

"Everything I have told you is completely true." Hermes replied. "You have my word as a God."

"Hermes, please tell me brother that I'm grateful for the help he's providing and that he's willing to make amends." Athena said.

"I shall tell him Athena." Hermes said with a tip of his gold hat. "I had best be on my way then. I was ordered to deliver the message and nothing else. I hope to see you again Athena."

Athena nodded and they all watched as the messenger God left the room and was on his way back to the home of the Greek Gods.

"Athena, is it wise to believe what Hermes has told us?" Kanon asked uncertainly.

"I'm positive we can." Athena answered and then looked down at the scroll in her hands. A message from her father.

"Should we leave you so you can read your father's letter?" Aphrodite asked.

"It's alright. I'll read it in my room." Athena answered. "Can someone check on Ikki if he doesn't come back in an hour?"

"I'll check on him." Hyoga offered.

"Thank you Hyoga. Don't let him know that you're checking on him. It might upset him more."

"Yes ma'am."

The purple haired girl smiled and left as the saints went their own ways. She right away started to her room. Her mind was yelling at her to hurry and read her father's letter. She was anxious to see what he wrote.

Quicker than she realized she was already at her chamber doors. She went in and locked the doors to make sure that she wouldn't be disturbed while she read.

As soon as the doors were locked she sat down on her bed and started to untie the scroll. Carefully but quickly, she untied the string and unrolled the paper and began to read her father's neat handwriting.

_My daughter Athena,_

_Only a month has past since we last saw each other. Apollo claims he is ready to make amends with you and so is everyone else who had doubted you and your saint army. I myself am ready to try to strengthen our relationship. Your uncle Hades spoke a harsh truth to me before he took control of Olympus and I knew his words were true. One thing he never did was lie. Because of your duty to protect Earth and having to be reincarnated our relationship has grown weak over the centuries we've been apart and that has caused me to have a stronger relationship with your brother and sister._

_I hope we can meet again and speak of the new threats that are heading your way. Hermes was only given a small amount of information of the Demi-Gods that are going to be threatening you and your saints in the near future._

_In three days I wish for you to come to Olympus with Hades so I can inform you of the identities of the Demi-Gods and the ancient creatures that are reappearing. I hope that you both will be able to come to this important meeting as all the Gods of Olympus will be present for it since it is also a threat to us._

_I look forward to see you again my daughter._

_Zeus_

Athena slowly put the paper down as the last paragraph repeated in her mind. Did her father think they had found a way to limit Hades inside Shun and he was still moving about freely?

What was she going to do? In three days her father was going to expect her to show up before every God and Goddess on Olympus and they were also going to expect to see Shun as Hades.

But how could he be there when Shun was still frozen inside the ice coffin and both his and Hades souls were sealed away?

In order to get Shun out of that ice coffin Athena would have to have a cosmic meeting with him and Hades and see if they were both willing to make a deal. That was the only way to release them.

But with Ikki still down in the chamber with Shun who knew how long it would be until Athena would be able to have that meeting? And she wasn't sure if Hades would be willing to agree to just reside within Shun and let the younger boy have control of their powers.

Knowing her oldest uncle, Athena was sure that Hades was going to give her a hard time about making a deal but she knew that he was going to be interested in hearing that he could be free of the ice coffin. Agreeing to a deal would be the only way that he could be free from being sealed away and he could return to his kingdom.

That was something else that would be hard to agree upon. Athena had a hard enough time seeing Shun being sealed away by his fellow saints over a month ago. She longed for the day that he could be free again.

To see him walk away from being frozen for so long and to see him be welcomed by his brother and friends.

The only way that could happen was if both Shun and Hades agreed to share one body with certain conditions applying to an agreement.

As she started to return to the saints, the young goddess of war and wisdom could only hope that things would turn out alright for all of them.

[][][]

Hyoga had to remember to keep himself in check as he walked down the hallway toward the hidden chamber. A total of four hours had gone by since Ikki had gone into the chamber alone and he still hasn't come out.

The blond had to admit that he was worried about the phoenix saint.

First he didn't want to answer any questions about why he didn't return to Sanctuary when he was so close to it, then he demanded to see his brother alone without anyone else around and now he stayed alone in the chamber for the past few hours without so much as a word of how he was handling the current situation his brother was in.

Hyoga always knew that Ikki was probably the worlds greatest expert at hiding his emotions but even _Ikki_ couldn't hide any feelings about how he would take seeing Shun the way he is right now.

No one could and Hyoga knew that Ikki would take the latest news well. When he had been walking down the stairs to the chamber he had recieved a cosmic message from Athena. He had been stunned by what she told him and had asked for him to pass that information onto Ikki.

This wasn't going to be pleasant for the blond ice saint.

The Cygnus saint quietly walked down the hallway that lead to the hidden chamber where his two friends were.

This walk was still so hard for him. When he would come to visit Shun he would always try to reflect on happier times together before this mess started, but in the end he would always come out of the chamber with his eyes red from crying and his heart feeling heavy with sorrow.

He still felt incredibly guilty knowing that he was one of the people who had put him in the ice in the first place. That was why it was so hard for him to walk down this hallway to the room where the former Andromeda saint slept.

With a lump in his throat and a knot in his stomach, Hyoga reached the large doors that went into the chamber. He didn't fail to notice that the doors had meant to be shut but were cracked open a bit. Using this chance, Hyoga peeked through the crack and into the room.

He right away saw Ikki's back to him looking up at Shun. From what Hyoga could tell, it looked like Ikki had been this way the whole time he was in there. Just standing and staring with a hand on the ice block.

Hyoga knew that wasn't a very good sign for Ikki. He never knew the phoenix to be so calm when such a serious situation toward his little brother had occurred. Usually Ikki would be having a tantrum and throwing balls of fire at anything or anyone in his path.

To see Ikki so still and calm like this made Hyoga nervous. It usually meant that Ikki was just waiting for something to set his anger off.

Feeling like he was about to get his head torn off, the swan saint dared to open the doors more and walked inside. He felt his knees shake the closer he quietly walked to the taller man. He wanted to say something but he feared he may say the wrong thing or something to make Ikki lash out at him.

He wanted to say that Shun had been incredibly brave during the time of his sacrifice to be sealed away. He wanted to tell Ikki how hard it was for him to help Camus as they performed the Ice Coffin technique that preserved Shun's body along with his, and Hades, soul.

But for now Hyoga would just listen if Ikki had something to say.

"Ikki?"

The phoenix didn't move or make a sound. He was still as a statue.

"Ikki?" Hyoga tried again.

"Hyoga, please. I wanted to be alone." Ikki said calmly and quietly.

"I know Ikki but Athena asked me to come check on you." Hyoga replied. "We just wanted to see how you were doing. We're all worried about you."

"I'm not the one everyone should be worried about." Ikki said in his still calm tone.

"I know Ikki." Hyoga agreed. "I feel so horrible for what's happened."

"You shouldn't."

"But I do and now Athena received a message not too long ago about another threat that's coming our way."

"What?" Ikki gasped turning to look at the Russian man.

"The messenger of the gods, Hermes, arrived not too long ago and told us that Apollo has seen Demi-Gods appearing and heading this way to threaten Athena. To top it off, Zeus has sent her a letter saying that he wants both her and Shun, as Hades, to go to Olympus so they can discuss the situation and how the Demi-Gods may be. We already know that the Demi-God controlling the rain is related to Poseidon so we're sure that Julian knows what's going on as well. Athena wants to have a cosmic meeting with Shun and Hades to see if she can get them to agree on something so they can both be free of the ice coffin."

"Is she positive that it can get Shun out of there?" Ikki asked.

"It all depends on what's agreed on but she can get him out of there." Hyoga answered.

Ikki looked back at his brother who stayed motionless inside the ice with a peaceful expression on his face and the star pendant with Athena's seal around his neck.

That cursed pendant. How many times had Ikki had nightmares about Shun wearing that pendant again and forever leaving claiming to be the ruler of the dead?

Every time he woke up from that dream his heart would be racing and it was also begging him to find Shun as quickly as possible to make sure he was still the same sweet person he's always been.

But what if Athena did manage to get Shun and Hades to agree on something? If Hades agreed to still be residing in Shun in order for them to be free then would that mean that Shun would have to leave to rule the Underworld?

Ikki really hoped that it wouldn't come to that. He needed to have his brother here with him and so did the others.

It was depressing around Sanctuary when someone close to Athena and the saints wasn't around. They weren't complete.

"Ikki, I think we should let Athena come in here to see what she can do about freeing Shun. This might be the only chance we get to get him back." Hyoga suggested.

"But if she can get him back, why should he have to be Hades vessel again?" Ikki demanded walking from the block of ice to the stand where the pictures were and picked up the picture of him and Shun in their childhood.

Never would he have thought that his little brother would be a God reborn.

"Maybe she can do something about that too." Hyoga suggested. "Maybe she can get them to agree on something so Shun can stay with us and not be Hades."

"That's wishful thinking but somehow I know that it isn't going to happen or it won't be so easy." Ikki replied.

"Either way, we should let Athena come in and speak with the both of them." Hyoga said.

Ikki nodded once as he put the picture down and looked at the flawless face of his dear brother once more.

What if this was the last time he saw Shun as his brother? What if the next time he saw Shun he would be the emperor of the Underworld?

Ikki pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind as he followed Hyoga out of the room with the doors shutting close behind them.

[**Ten minutes later**]

Athena looked up at the ice block holding Shun's body inside. She felt her eyes shake from seeing him like this and by the memory of how this came to be. She wanted today to be the day that he could be free of this horrid prison.

She wanted to see Shun around his friends and his brother. It would be the happiest moment Sanctuary has felt in a long time.

With her staff in her right hand, she closed her eyes and flared her cosmo toward the young man. Even though the souls of Shun and Hades were sealed away their cosmo could still be reached and spoken through.

The world around her became dark and it seemed that stars started to appear and be the only light. Almost right away, she felt two different but strong forces call back to her cosmo. She knew who it was.

Opening her eyes to the space around her, Athena saw two small dots of light float toward her at the same speed. One was a light pink color and the other was a grayish black color.

Shun and Hades.

When the two dots of light were about ten feet away from her, they stopped and slowly started to take form.

An eternity seemed to pass for Athena as she watched the lights finish forming into the appearances of Shun in his Andromeda God Cloth and Hades in his dark God Cloth.

"Hello Shun. Hades." she greeted softly.

"Athena." The two said at the same time.

"Something important must be occurring in order for you to call a cosmic meeting like this." Hades remarked.

"There is Hades and I need both your help and Shun's." Athena replied.

"What's going on Athena?" Shun asked in a concerned voice.

"I can't explain the whole thing but the short version is that there are Demi-Gods appearing and making their way toward Sanctuary. One has already caused the weather to drastically change all over Greece. My father, Zeus, wishes for us to be on Olympus so that we can figure out the identities of the Demi-Gods."

"What you're saying is that my incarnation and I have to be free from being sealed away in order to attend this meeting with my dear younger brother." Hades said with a smirk.

"Yes Hades." Athena confirmed. "That's why I've come here to speak with the both of you. The only way for both of you to be unsealed and have your freedom is if you merge souls."

"Merge together? As in, forever?" Shun asked sounding surprised and shocked.

"You are already me to begin with." Hades declared. "How we are now is like we are split personalities that have somehow separated from one body. We are one in the same Shun. Merging our souls together would mean that you would fully remember being a God and remembering all of your memories of the ancient times as well as regaining your full power. It's like you would find the missing piece of yourself. Why would you deny being a God again?"

"Your way of being a God, the lifestyle, is not one that I would become comfortable with." Shun answered. "If I truly was you in ancient times then why is it I'm so different from that time?"

"Over the times of reincarnation, one of those people turned out to be a real softy. A man whose heart was incredibly pure and kind. Turned out he was a priest. That was when I decided that only those with the purest soul in the era of my reincarnation should be my new body. Since then our human side has always been kind and pure of heart and soul. That is why you are so different from the ancient times. If that priest hadn't changed our human side we would still be the same."

Shun gave Hades an uncertain look before turning back to Athena.

"And this is the only way Athena?" he asked.

"Yes Shun and I'm sorry." the goddess of wisdom answered. "Hades speaks the truth. If you merge your soul with his you will remember your life as a God all the way back to the ancient times. Possibly to your birth. Your current personality will be dominate and you will also stop reincarnating since you will be immortal."

Shun looked a little taken back by that.

Never reincarnate again? It almost sounded too good to be true. Shun remember his past life as the Italian boy Alone who was amazingly talented in art and was the older brother of Sasha and best friend to Tenma. He also briefly remembered memories from other lives.

In each one he was friend's with the person who would be the next Pegasus saint. His time as Alone was the only time he ever knew the incarnation of Athena since it was the first time she was ever born outside the Sanctuary and it had been to protect the person who was Hades reincarnation.

If he never reincarnated again that meant that he would have to wait two hundred or more years until Athena and the Pegasus saint were reborn to see them again. Even then, the rest of the Bronze and Gold saints wouldn't reincarnate and be reborn.

Once they were gone...they were gone...for good.

That meant Ikki too.

But he could find a way to make sure they can always be with Athena every time she was reborn. But to do that he would have to agree to the merging.

"I need to know of your opinions of the merging." Athena said. "Will you both agree to it and become one soul once again? Or would you rather stay apart and stay sealed away?"

Shun and Hades faced each other. Their same colored eyes watching each other intensely, their almost identical faces held the same expression and their minds questioning the possibilities of being whole again.

They didn't want to go back to being sealed away. That was easily agreed upon.

Both also knew that Shun's personality would be dominate from now on but there would be moments when Hades took control. But the chance of him trying to take over Sanctuary again wasn't likely this time.

Hades already had a kingdom of his own that was constantly expanding. There is no reason for him to try to take over Sanctuary anymore.

It would be classic light against dark moments. Split personalities going one on one with each other. But what they agreed upon right away was that they would like to be free to once again walk the earth and amongst those they know and care about.

The merging was the only way to do any of that.

Any other problems that came up would have to be put on hold or settled later after the merging took place.

"Well?" Athena asked.

Shun and Hades turned to Athena and nodded once signaling they agreed to the merging.

Athena weakly smiled. Now that their souls would be one it would surely mean that Shun would be leaving to be the emperor of the dark underworld. But this time it would be permanent.

There wouldn't be any crashing into the throne room, attacks ready, and driving Hades soul from Shun's body.

His sweet smile wouldn't be seen by Athena, his adorable laugh wouldn't be heard around the twelve temples or the palace and he would never again fight alongside Seiya and the other saints. He wouldn't even be able to go near Sanctuary unless he was invited there by Athena herself.

After what happened in the last Holy War it was highly doubted the guards or saints would be welcoming Hades onto the sacred ground even if he was the former Andromeda saint so the chances of invitations were low.

Despite how hard this change was going to be, Athena felt confident that something could be done for them to keep in touch and stay close friends. The last thing she wanted was to see someone she cared so much about vanish out of her life forever.

It already happened once and she didn't want to see it happen again.

Holding her staff tighter in her hand, she let her cosmo flare again as it spread out toward Shun and Hades. Each of their cosmo started to shine once hers reached their bodies.

The pink and black lights started to mix and swirl together the brighter Athena's cosmo glowed.

"When you open your eyes, we will be in the Sanctuary palace and you will be out of the ice coffin that you were sealed inside for over a month. Everyone will be waiting and ready to welcome you back."

Athena raised her staff as a beam of light shone from it and onto the two merging souls as they become one.


End file.
